Depending on what happens in the Midwest and East Coast, I may find myself without a candidate to vote for in the presidential election — for the first time in my adult life.
The frontrunners of both political parties scare me. On the Democratic ticket, we have Hillary Rodham Clinton, who used her private Internet server for emails to circumvent open public records laws and allowed top-secret classified documents to flow over that same server, possibly threatening national security. Her performance as secretary of state also proved a failure. If you doubt me, just watch the movie “13 Hours” to see why four people needlessly lost their lives in Benghazi, Libya.
On the Republican ticket, the frontrunner is Donald Trump, who was a liberal Democrat up until he decided to run for president, when he suddenly declared himself a Republican. Then, with inexplicable help from conservative talk radio show host Rush Limbaugh, he drew a lot of naïve folks into his camp, including Sarah Palin, a woman I once admired who has now forfeited her conservative credibility by endorsing a candidate who favored partial birth abortion.
It’s not certain at this point that either of these two people will land on the final election ballot, but they’re leading in the polls today. Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders is giving Clinton a good run to the left, while conservative Sen. Ted Cruz is not far behind Trump, who says mean and nasty things about women, political opponents and most anyone who disagrees with him.
I know nice guys finish last, but rich, mean guys don’t necessarily make good presidents. The secretary of commerce perhaps, but please God, never our commander-in-chief.
If we’re talking about nice people, Sanders would be among the nicest, along with Ben Carson and Marco Rubio. I’d vote for any of the candidates running on the Republican ticket except for Trump.
But as worked up as we can get over the party nomination process, it will pretty much be decided by the time Washington voters cast ballots in our presidential primary May 24.
Yet we can wield some influence this month, when it still matters, by attending our local caucuses to voice our opinions on the candidates. The Republican Party caucuses take place Saturday, Feb. 20, while the Democratic Party holds its caucuses Saturday, March 26.
When casting ballots in the presidential primary, voters need to declare a party and affirm that they didn’t participate in the other party’s caucus. It’s up to the political parties to determine whether they’ll use the results of the presidential primary or caucuses (or a mix of both) when they hold their national conventions, according to the Washington Secretary of State’s website.
Washington State Republican Party leaders decided to allocate delegates to the national convention based solely on the outcome of the May 24 primary results. Delegates will be elected at the Feb. 20 caucuses, but not based on candidate preference. Straw polls won’t even be conducted at the caucuses. However, the state Democratic Party will determine its delegate allocation based on the outcome of party caucuses held Saturday, March 26.
Happy Birthday
Congratulations to the four men who attended Boistfort School together decades ago and celebrate their 90th birthdays this month with a party at the Baw Faw Grange Feb. 20 (yes, the day of the Republican caucuses). What great stories these men could share!
Steam Train
I’m glad to see the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad and Museum has purchased a backup locomotive so they won’t have to lose an entire year of ferrying passengers for special events as they did in 2015, when the Old Baldwin No. 15 was being overhauled.
Reception For Homeless
I thought it was fabulous that 29-year-old Seattle bride-to-be Dana Olsen, whose fiancé got cold feet at the last minute, asked her mother to donate the evening to homeless families in need. I wish my sister had thought of that when my niece’s fiancé backed out two weeks before their wedding. My sister had to forfeit thousands of dollars, but she could have simply held a party for the underprivileged.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
